


And then time stops

by anotherbird



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Established Relationship, F/F, Holiday Decorations, Holiday domesticity, Hugs, M/M, Rated T for swearing, android love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-01
Updated: 2019-01-01
Packaged: 2019-10-02 02:12:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,964
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17255687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anotherbird/pseuds/anotherbird
Summary: North had never really seen much sense in celebrating a Holiday - something so distinctly human, but in the end, there’s beauty in everything.





	And then time stops

**Author's Note:**

  * For [steadycoffeeflow (Salimity)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Salimity/gifts).



> This was written for Steadycoffeeflow for the Secret Santa on the Hankcon BB2019 server. 
> 
> I went with "Some lady ships" ;) because I always wanted to write something for Kara and North. I hope, you enjoy it!
> 
> Music: ["Carousel"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14fG-K8d6QE), a part from Kara's soundtrack.

North never had any reason to care for Christmas or literally any other holiday for that matter. Holidays, it seemed, were something distinctly human. Something imprinted into their core programming. Some instinct that told them to celebrate events. Birthdays, namedays, the change of seasons or years. Religious events. 

Artificial excuses for made-up traditions. 

And for some reason, Androids took after their creators. 

There were androids who saw the day of the uprising as a holiday and with it came infighting about which date to choose. 

The date of the first march? 

Their break-in into the Stratford Tower? 

The day they almost faced certain genocide?

Others had started to celebrate their deviation dates like human birthdays. 

Some even formed religious groups and discussed days in honor of RA9, a program of higher power, that they believed had ensouled them. Enabled them to break their programming. 

North could never make sense of that. There had only ever been one entity that broke her chains: herself. 

Some even suggested that Markus was RA9’s physical manifestation, so the day he deviated should be a day to rejoice. 

For North this just bordered on the ridiculous. When you lived long enough with a person to learn all their quirks, it was hard to even consider them as the icon people made them out to be. 

People, who constantly brought new stray cats into their home - which included homeless androids as well as literal living stray cats - and had a liking for sappy teenage romance novels and owned a collection of self painted portraits of their own boyfriend weren't good religious figures.

Or maybe they were. North didn't really care much for religion, after all. So what did she know?

 

So since North wasn't even convinced of android holidays, she was even less enthusiastic about the idea of taking part in human holiday traditions at the end of the year, when Josh suggested it. Of course it had been Josh. He had even a guest list ready, full of familiar faces. An occasion to bond. Form their own traditions. Markus had been hooked on the idea immediately.

“It will be nice.” Markus had insisted, in the charming way, that worked wonders to most people. “A lot of people grew up with celebrating different holidays during this time of the year.”

“We don't grow up.”

Markus had rolled his eyes. 

“You know what I mean. Let them have an excuse to just enjoy themselves. To distract them from everything that's happening outside. We could use some distraction.  _ You _ could use some of that, too, you know.” 

 

In the end, North had been overruled and begrudgingly became part of the preparations. Luther carried a ridiculously large tree into the main hall, the cats climbed into it, and Simon and Josh covered the mansion in lights and candles and flowers and mistletoes and golden winged pigs, while Markus played Christmas carols and good natured made up songs on the piano. Diogenes, a giant lazy ragdoll cat, Markus had found in a barrel on a junkyard, lay on top of the instrument and watched him with curious blue eyes. They got eggnog and actual food for Hank, Leo, Rose and Adam, the only humans that had been invited.

 

A swarm of Jerrys put up blinking garden decorations, a hivemind of jumpy androids with far too much motivation. It was fascinating to watch them. After months of isolation in an abandoned amusement park, they had melted into one collective being, unable and unwilling to be separated. Syncing with them was overwhelming and required a hardware reboot afterwards, which Josh had learned the hard way, when he tried to send them instructions for putting the lights up. 

Between them ran Alice, always followed by two or three cats. The Jerrys had declared her the supervisor, so whenever they completed a task, like putting up a reindeer made of light bulbs, she had to test it and give her blessing. So she would retract her skin to connect with the wires and lit them up, while the Jerrys applauded and jumped with excitement, her eyes turned thirium blue and black.

It was impossible to escape her. Even more to resist her. 

When she spotted North watching her from afar, she ran over and took her hand, made her come with her and touch one of the wires as well, so the large old oak tree was illuminated with tiny blue stars, as the Jerrys cheered. 

 

The evening turned out the be unsurprising in its process. The guests arrived at dawn and filled the house with a constant chatter. Predictable groups formed and from time to time a familiar pinkie hooked under North’s own for a short sync. A warm feeling flooded through her, reassuring, as if arms hugged her and pulled her close and then left her to it again. 

 

She ended up with Hank Anderson, as she usually did on events she preferred to escape from. He had a calming presence about him, that made him bearable to her and a gruff sense of humor, she enjoyed. He also knew how to listen, when to just shut up.

He was someone silence was comfortable with.

So they leaned next to one another on a bookshelf and watched Kara and Alice drown Sumo in affection. The giant dog had settled comfortably on his back in front of the fireplace, all four legs in the air. One hind paw twichted, as Alice tickled his belly.

Hank had a glass of overpriced Scotch in his hand and wore one of those red and white christmas hats, that made the Lieutenant look like Santa himself. From time to time he would glance over to Connor. Connor with his stupid Christmas sweater with the giant orange fish at the front.

“Just spit it out, old man.” North said after a while. 

“All you guys freak me out with your ability to read body language.” 

North shrugged, but didn't say anything in return, just crossed her arms in front of her chest.

“Isn't it weird that she will never grow up? She'll always have the mind and body of a child.” He gestured in Alice’ direction. The girl giggled, when Sumo slobbered over her face. Kara's laugh followed, clear and lovely like the bell, Simon made one of the kittens wear. 

“You’re projecting.” She shot back, a little too harsh. As he raised his eyebrows at her, not intimidated at all, she continued. “I have no idea, how it feels to be a child. And we don’t know, if she even feels like one.” North shrugged again. “Growing up means nothing to us. We just are.”

Hank huffed.

“Nothing just is. Everything evolves somewhere.”

“Yes. But we can’t know where yet.”

Hank just sighed, his whole body moved with it and finally he just shook his head. 

“Fucking androids.” He squeezed her shoulder slightly and they shared a smirk. 

“Stupid humans.”

His smirk turned into a grin.

“You’re damn right about that.”

Slowly he strolled over to Connor, who was talking to Markus and Josh on the sofa. North watched as Hank landed one if his large hands on his shoulder, then gently ran over his neck and then tried to dishevel Connor’s dark hair with his fingers. His hand was caught there though, fingers entwined with each other in an intimate way and Hank was pulled down on the sofa. North had found them an odd pair in the beginning. Gruff Hank with his tendency to drink too much and CyberLife's deadly doe-eyed star pupil. But something had changed them both, softened them. Something good. 

 

North pulled her eyes away and decided to head for the garden. The night had turned pitch black, but the garden was illuminated by fairy lights. Every sound was cushioned by the snow that was falling in large soft flakes. She didn’t care for the cold. She just settled cross legged on the floor, facing the house, that towered over her, and closed her eyes. She shut off everything. 

All her senses.

_ Deactivating noise recognition software.... _

_ Shutting down auditory sensors….  _

Blocked the background noises from the city, 

_ Touch sensors on standby…. _

the feeling of wet snow on her skin, the cold floor under her, 

_ Disabling olfactory input processors…. _

the smell of winter and smoke from the fireplace.

_ Warning: all sensory input process programs are inactive. _

She closed the warning message.

 

For a while she was alone with herself. 

She was everything that existed. 

 

There was a knock in her conscience, someone asking to come in with a hushed whisper and North opened her eyes to find Kara's girl in front of her, with a shy smile. 

_ “Can I sit with you?” _ Her voice echoed in her mind and North nodded in silence. Alice face lit up, when she settled down next to North on the snowy floor. 

Slowly North turned all her senses back on.

Heard the low music from inside. 

Felt the snow wetting the fabric of her trousers. 

_ “I got you something.” _ Alice’ voice appeared in her head again after a while. 

_ “You didn't have to.”  _

_ “I wanted to. I made it myself.” _

Alice offered her hand. With hesitation North reached for the tiny fingers. Synthetic skin revealed white shiny plastic, as their fingers touched for the sync. 

_ “Close your eyes.” _

And North did as she was told and saw...She saw. 

The saw warmth. She lacked the words to describe what was happening to her. She touched a rainbow and felt soft clouds and warm rain on her face. She smelled and tasted pink peppermint and sweet tea. A beating blue heart. A colorful bird breaking free from a cage. She rode a carousel in a snowstorm with blinking lights. She felt hands holding each other and a kiss on a forehead. Wires connecting with sparks of blue light. 

 

A new connection made her open her eyes again. A hand on her neck, gently asking for entrance and North couldn’t help but smile and opened her mind. She understood why the Jerrys couldn't let go of each other. 

How sharing your mind with someone else made you lonely as soon as they were gone. As if some new piece of yourself were missing.

A piece you never knew you needed in the first place.

_ “It's beautiful.” _ Kara's voice hummed in her mind and filled her circuits with warm golden honey. The voice was velvet on skin, the smell of cherry blossoms and the song of a nightingale. The surface of North's chassis heated up, where Kara was interfacing with her. Alice giggled. 

“It's perfect.” North answered out loud. Behind her Kara chuckled and pulled her hand away. Before North had any chance to protest against the sudden lack of connection, the other android settled down behind her. Legs appeared at both of her sides, while two arms entwined around her waist and pulled her close. Kara bedded her chin on North’s shoulder. 

_ “You're cold.” _ Kara's voice stated somewhere deep inside of her and the body behind North started to heat up. 

 

North’s eyes darted through the room, she could glimpse in through the large windows. She could spot Hank, who had one arm around Connor and pulled him close, while he was discussing something with Josh. Connor just watched them, and smiled to himself. 

Markus and Simon stood in one of the oriels, white hands linked with each other, fingers entwined, lips unmoving, but obviously engaged in a conversation only they were privy to. Then Markus looked outside and smiled. 

 

_ “I told you it was a good idea.” _ Markus’ winked at her from the other side of the glass, as they locked eyes. His words on their private channel were marked as smug. 

_ “Shut up.”  _

But she smiled, while all time stood still. 


End file.
